Apex Court gives two weeks to Centre to reply on banning green crescent-star flags

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Friday, granted two weeks to the Centre for replying on a plea seeking a ban on hoisting of green flags with a crescent and a star at buildings and religious places across the country.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi heard the plea filed by Shia Waqf Board chairman Syed Waseem Rizvi.

Rizvi, in his petition, has claimed that green flags with a crescent and a star are “un-Islamic” and resemble the flag of a Pakistani political party.

Speaking to ANI, petitioner Rizvi said, "India's apex court today heard the case. This is the registered flag of a Pakistani party and today those raising such flag only showcases their love for Pakistan. Court has given two weeks of time to Centre to reply on the issue."

In April last year, Rizvi had filed the petition in the apex court.

Rizvi had stated that the green flag with crescent and star owes its origins to the erstwhile political party, the All-India Muslim League which was founded by Nawaz Waqar Ul-Malik and Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1906 in Dhaka.

In the present day, it is being used by Indian Muslims as an Islamic flag.

Even the national flag of Pakistan, which was adopted in 1947, after its partition from India is a green flag with a white crescent moon and five-rayed star at its centre and a vertical white stripe at the hoist side, which is based on the All-India Muslim League's flag.